Process of and apparatus for making fiber boards



July s 1924. y

J. K. SHAW ROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING FIBER BOARDS 1-920 2Sheets-Sheet l Original Filed April 6 July l8 19,24.

J. K. SHAW PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING FIBER BOARDS- OriginalFiled April 6 1920 2 ASheets-Shed 2 Jam/KS @y named July s, 1924.

TOEN I. BHAW, 0F MINNEAPOLIS., MINNSOTA,

ASSIIGNOB TO C. F. lDAIIIIBEIB'G', 0l'

ser. PAUL, mmmsora.

0I' AND APPARATUS FOR KJAKING FIBER BOARDS.

Application med. April 8, 1920, Serial No. 371,568. Renewed January 9,1928.

To allv whom' t may ocmo'm: Be it known that I, JOHN K. SHAW, a citizenof the United States, residing at Minnea olis, in the county of Hennepinand State o Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Processes of and Apparatus for Making Fiber Boards; and- I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a process of and an apparatus for interlacinfibers preparatory to making fiber boar s, and has for its object toprovide a method and a means which will be more eicient in action andless expensive to operate than those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in View the invention consists in the novelsteps and combinations of steps constituting thev process and in thenovel parts and combinations of parts constituting the apparatus, allaswill be more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out inthe claims.

This'ap lication is an improvement over my copening application, SerialNumber 368,990 filed Mar. 26, 1920, and entitledy Process of andapparatus for making fiber boards.-

Referring'to the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecication in which4 like numerals designate like parts inv all theviewsz-f j Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of an apparatusmade in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a view showing the normal positions of the wires in the beltbefore stretching; j

Figure 3 is a view showing the eiect of stretching on the wires;

Figlure 4 is'a diagrammatic view illustrat- 'in t e dis osition of theindividual fibers be ore reac ing the traveling surface;

Figure 5 is a view similar to Fi ure 4 illustrating the action of. thetrave ing vsurface upon the individual fibers; and

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a berboard made inaccordance with this invention.

Referring to Figure 1, 1 indicates any suitable tank for holding thewater and iibers, 2the bottom of said tank, 3 an in- Between the runs 12and 13 is located the water outlet 15, provided with the controlling-means or gate 16 which may be suitably mani ulated ask by the handle orother device 17. j

Coacting with theforaminous surface or belt 11, and in close roximitythereto as regards one portion tli) ereof, is the foraminous belt 18,passing over and around the series of guide rolls 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and24. Said belt 18 also passes overthe compression and .guide `roll 25coacting with the compression roll 6,' and adjustably mounted on themovable means 26. 27represents a tension and guide roll, adjustablymounted on the'4 means 28, and 29, an outlet for the water passingthrough the belt 18, controlled by the gate 30 and adjustable throughthe handle 31. 32 and 33 represent suitable Water seals made of flexiblematerial for the belts 11 and 18 respectively.

35 represents a channel or passage for water and fibers which may bemaintained at any desired hydrostatic head 36, 37 an opening from thechannel 35 into the tank space 38, and 39 a top or partition separatingsaid space 38 from the remainder of the tank. 40 represents a second.channel for water and pu'lp fibers, 41 the head. thereof, 42 an openingfrom said channel into the tank space 43, and 44 a partition which withthe partition 39 serves to separate said space43from the rest ofthetank, 45 represents athird channel'vfor water and fibers having a head46, 47 an opening into the tank space 48, and 49 a partition coactinwith the partition 44 to segregate sai space 48 from the remainder ofthe tank.

In machines'of this character'it is necessary to have the aggregate areaof the meshes of the travelin surface. sufficiently vlarge to carry awayt e waste water fast enough to properly interlace the bers. But 1f themesh is ne enough to properly stop the stock, the screen must be verylong to furnish the required a gregate mesh area.

would be about 57 feet long. But when this great length of screen isemployed with such a ne wire mesh, the strain on the screen is almostlsureto so pull the strands, as to cause the mesh to change from thepat-v tern Ashown in Figure 2 to that shown in Figure 3. This pullingaction so changes the pattern on the paper or other material produced,that the resulting product is damaged. On the'other hand, when thescreen is shortened to about say 17 feet or somewhat longer in order toavoid this change of pattern, the mesh of a wire cloth must be soincreased that the stock is apt to pass through the screen too fast ifwe are to get rid of the water with the desired speed for a goodinterlacing of the bers.

To avoid these objections, in carrying out this invention, I provide thescreen 11 of a relatively large mesh, say about 14 to the square inch,and n'd .that its wire strands are sufficiently -strong to prevent anyobjectionable pulling when said screen is made very much shorter than 57feet, but, of course, meshes of this size do not sto the stock andinterlace them as efficient y as could be desired.`v Accordingly, Ilocate inside said screen 11, a relatively short endless screen 100,which has a mesh of about 20 to the square inch, and which convenient-lypasses around the rollers or drums 4 an 101 as illustrated. l j

It will be understood that this invention may only flow water vthroughscreen v11, the o ning 29, in that case bein cut o' by t e gate 30, andwhen such is tie case, only I one endless belt 100 will be required. On

the other hand, water may be flowed si.

multaneously through the screens .11 and 18, and in such latter case thescreen 181may in some cases -be sufficiently short to cnable one to usea 20 mesh wire cloth. s In such cases, again only one screen 100 will benecessary. But, other cases ma arise las in which I will need a 14 meshc oth in screen 18, and in that event I provide a secondv wire clothscreen 103 of 2O mesh which conveniently passes around the rollers 22and 24. In either or both cases, said screens 100 and 103 of arelatively fine mesh, serve -to stop the bers passing the screens 11or18, and thereby cause more or less bers to stop or interlace on thecoarser meshes of saidvscreens 1'1. or 18; These said last mentionedbers soon pass beyond the course bers ofv an .usual ngth may be bersbut. of

employed. Said ersby reason of the direction of flow of the waterthrough the belt 11, or surface 13will bebrought into positions more orless parallel to each other,

and more or less perpendicular to the lline of travel of- Vthe surface13, while at the same time all of said bers will occupy positions moreor less staggered with relation to their v neighbors as shown.Accordingly, a large percentage of the forward ends 61 ofthe rstportions of said bers will rst pass through said surface 13, asindicated in Figure 4, but will be stopped, and carried along by thebelt 100 from the positions shown in Figure 4 to those shown in Figure5, wherein the -rear ends 62 of said bers are illus' trated as havinglagged behind the front.

ends 61, in the water, so that the front row of said bers have assumed asomewhat curved or bent shape. Owing to the'stoppage of the bers by thebelt 100, the second row, or those bers 63 immediately following, andwhich have notv reached the surface 13, but have reached the rear ends62 of the bers 60, are now forced by the oncomin water to contact attheir forward en s against the curved bers 60. This action 4, were moreor less staggered or interlaced with the other bers 60, before thelatter became curved; and it is evident lthat this f interlacing orentangling action between the bers 60 and 63 will be enhanced orincreased, Vby the oncoming water after the surface 13 becomes coveredwith berein the manner just stated, Land after-l said curvature takesplace. It results vfrom the actions, just described that said bers 63 inchamber 43,

become themselves more or less curved, as indicated in .'Figure 5, dueto the transverse movement of the bers 60, and that a third to t eoating of the bers into parallel,

"interlaced or staggered positions, and in a through the openingdirection transverse to the traveling surface 13, the entanglement ofthe bers is continuous between successive rows, even though the meshesof said surface 13 are suiciently large to permit me tense` a relativelyshort belt 11, and even though the pressure of the water causes thewhole mass to' be ve loosely assembled -in their interlaced posltions onsaid surface 13. The open mass of bers thus formed is more compact nextto the wire than away from it, and said mass is carried throughtheopening into the tivel 'short or more'expensive bers than are t ose fedto the channel 40, and I may feed to the channel 45, the same class ofbers as are fed to the channel 35, or'I may feed a totally differentclass of bers. In

-other words, IY may rovide as many channels 35, 40 and 45, as t ere aredifferent characters of bers in the nished board, and I may place in therstv channel 35 and in the. last channel 45 anyv character of bers Idesire whereupon the nished. board will be rovi ed withpan outer layer77 correspondin'g to the lbers that are fed to the channel 35, withanother outer layer 78 corresponding to lthe bers that are fed tothechannel space 43, with `one or more partially curved* 45, and with oneor more intermediate layers and partially entangled layers similar tothe bers 60 and 63 clinging to it. v l

As stated above, in said space 43, other berssimilar to the bers 64become interlaced and entangled with thelayers on the belt; and theprocess of entanglement and massing proceeds as before; but in the meantime, owm to the presence of the belt 103, layers of ers in all respectssimilar to the layers 60, 63 and 64 are interlaced, entangled and massedon the travelin 'belt 18 from the surface 48, if the gate 30 oes notclose the opening 29. This second mass of bers is carried through the oning 71-by the belt 18 in a conditionsimilar to the rst mentioned massthat passes the openingY 70, and the bers in the 's ace 43' interlace,and be-` come entangled withsaid second mass in a manner similar to thatdescribed in connection with said rst mentioned ma'ss' on the surface13. The'resnlt is, owin to the` resence of the belts 100-,fand 103 ol arelatively ner mesh, and to the parallel and staggered relations of thebers'in-the space 43, a third mass of bers are interlaced and entangledwitheach other 011A the belts 13 and 18, which have relatively shortlengths and coarse meshes as comparedv to similar belts heretofore used.Of course, said third massv As a result of `the .foregoing entanglements of the various bers and the motion of the surfaces 100 and 103 of13 and 18,- the entire interlaced mass of bers is carried between thecomression or comgactmgrolls and 25,'and 1s formed into t will bereadily understood.

An important feature of this invention e sheet orv board 76,.all as 79corres nding to the character ofthe bers Whlch are fed to the channel 40and #to any other channels which may be located Aintermediate of thechannels 35 and 45.

sized in this invention isthe fact that no matter how many kinds of bersor how man layers of bers that are present in the nislvied board, thebers of each layer will be interlaced or entangled with the bers of itsadjacent layer on elts of wire cloth 11 and 18 which are much shorterthan those now in use for the same output of product,

mly interwoven But the important feature to be emphal to produce with acomparatively inexpen-v sive machine, a ber boardor sheet havingcomparatively inexpensivesbers on its interior and comparatlvelyfgexnsive bers on its exterior, so that a y'ornamental .Q appearance can beimparted wtoand retained pense.

Sular character of bers, for my invention is 011 the nished productatfa'minimum offer- I do not"v\z;isl1l to be to any particapplicable -tobers in general. Itl is only` necessary to oat the bers on theiwater toget them' into parallel and staggered positions as indicated in Figure3, 'and to thenv gure 4.

4entangle them as is illustrated in Fi The process is facilitated `bythefactV that -the openings 37, 42 and 47 are of a less areav than are thespaces 38, 43 and 48, into which [the bers are ed. Imother words, thebers .a must pass through the opening in -a comresides not only in beinable'to thus inter-1 paratively CIOSe ,relation t0 eachother, land lace,or entangle, the rs i`n the body of the sheet with relatively shortbelts 11 and 18 having relatively coarse meshes, but also in'being ableto. -vary the kind, size, or class,

of bers in different portions of the sheet.

That is to say, I'may feed to the channel 35, one 'kind ofV bers,which-mayv be relathe - along vwith .the water .While andassuming the'cated in Figure 4.

,.I further. prefer to permit avery -lar I H I proportion ofvthewater,say-d 90% of e are thenrim'mediately releasedinto a to the resultssought in the nished boar The rolls 6 and- 25 are readily adjusted byvthe means illustrated to roduce any desired compression in theopemngbetween said rolls, so that the ber' board ma be given any desireddegree of porosity. n fact, by uslng relatively large bers 1n thechannel 40, and relatively ne bers in the channels 35 and 45, Iam'enabled to control the air spaces in the bod of the board, andthereby to controlits eat-insulating qualities.

' The heads 36, 41 and 46, of the liquid in the channels 35, 40 and 45are so maintained that there will be a minimum tendency of liquid to owbetween the spaces or chambers 38, 43 and '48. In other words, thepressures of the liquid in the last mentioned spaces are maintained asnearly equal as possible, and thus a minimum tendency of the bers tofail to interlace is secured.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art ma var the details of .theconstruction as as t e details of the process without departing from thespirit of the invention, and therefore I do not wish to be limited tothe above disclosure except as may be required b the claims.

What claim isz- 1. The process of interlacing bers on an endlessrevolving screen havin meshes too large. to etliciently stop saidconsists in causing said bers to assume more or less parallel ositionsin a direction transverse to the pat of movement of said screen; causingsome'of said bers to be interlaced and massed at each revolution of saidscreen,

on a portion only of the latter; and then interlaced mass of berscausing the movin Iace with other bers to to stop and inter form thedesired product, substantially as described.

verse to the pa co 4 endless revolving screen havin v"thealicausing themoving interlaced mass ofA bers, which v x bers to stop and interlacewith other bers to form the desired product, substantially as described.

3. In a machine for making a ber board of interlaced bers, thecombination of a pluralit of movable foraminous surfaces; a relative yshort foraminous surface of a ner mesh positioned inside one of saidrst.

named surfaces; a plurality of separated channels for floating di'erentkinds of bers to said surfaces; and causing said different kinds of bersto interlace with each other; and means vfor compacting the interlacedbers vsubstantially as described.

4. ln a machine for making a ber board the combination of a plurality ofmovable foraminous surfaces; a relatively short foraminous surface of aner mesh positioned inside one of said first named surfaces; a pluralityof separated channels for conveying liquid and di'erfent kinds of bersseparately to said surfaces; and means for maintaining substantially thesame hydrostatic pressure in each channel, substantially as described.

5. In a machine for making a ber board of layers of interlaced bers, thecombination of a plurality of movable foraminous surfaces; a relativelyshort foraminous surface of a ner mesh positioned inside one of saidfirst named surfaces; chambers in which said surfaces are located; andrestricted channels communicating with said chambers, substantially asdescribed.

6. In a machine for making a ber board of layers of interlaced bers, thecombina- 'tion of a plurality of movable foraminous surfaces;'arelatively short foraminous surface of a ner mesh ositioned inside oneof said rst named sur aces; chambers extending in directions transverseto, and in which sald surfaces are located; and restricted channelshaving openin communicating with said chambers, su stantially asdescribed.

' 7. In a machine for making a ber board, the combination of an endlessbelt foraminous surface; a second endless belt foraminous surface; arelatively short foraminous surface of a ner mesh positioned inside oneof said rst named surfaces; chambers adapted to float bers to saidsurfaces;

means to prevent 'the bers in one chamber from mixing with the bers inthe adjoiningl chamber; means for feeding bers to sald chambers; andmeans causing said surfaces to compact the mass of bers fed thereto,substantially as described.

8. In a machine for making a ber board the combination of a channel forfeeding bers; a chamber communicating with said channel for floating aset of bers andcausing them to assume parallel positions; a secondchannel-and a second chamber for floating a *second set of bers; aforaminous surface ada ted to move across said chambers; and a oraminoussurface having a rel-g atively ne mesh extending alon a portion of thelength of and inside said t named foraminous surface, substantially asdescribed.

9. In amachine for making a ber board the combination of a pair offoraminous surfaces; a relatively short foraminous surfacel of a finerlmesh positioned inside one of said first named surfaces; vmeans .formoving said surfaces; means for adjusti said surfaces relativel to eachother; aii means for feeding a iferent kind of ber to each of saidsurfaces, substantially as described.

10. In a machine for making a ber board the combination of a pair ,ofendless belt foraminous surfaces; means for movin said surfaces; meansfor adjusting sai surfaces relatively to each other; means for,regulating the amount of water owing through each surface; meansforfeeding a different kind of ber to each of said surfaces; and aforarninousv surface of a relalacing fibrous material on a traveling.

foraminous 4surface having openings too largecto eiciently stop saidmaterial. which consists in causing the bers of said material -to assumemore or less parallel positions in a direction transverse to the line oftravel of said surface; and also causing said brous material to beretained and massed on said surface by a means independent of said sur-kface, substantially-as described.

In testimony whereof I aix my signa- JOHN K. SHAW.

